Kejriwal might contest against Narendra Modi

After travelling to Gujarat on an “inspection tour”, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal is likely to throw a challenge to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Prime Minister candidate Narendra Modi, the state’s veteran chief minister, in the Lok Sabha elections.

A member of the party’s national council told Business Standard the party’s declaration of the Delhi candidate list sans Kejriwal was an indication. “The party has named candidates from all the seven seats in Delhi and Kejriwal is not contesting from any, a strong hint that he will be pitched against Modi,” said the leader.

The party had earlier planned a seat for Kejriwal from Delhi. However, many seniors then expressed a desire that Kejriwal directly contest against Modi.

The party has so far declared 132 candidates, only one of these for Gujarat. It intends to contest all the seats there. The party leader said AAP was waiting for the Modi would contest from. The BJP has not announced Modi’s constituency yet. However, as this newspaper reported on Tuesday, he is most likely to be put from two seats — Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Vadodara in Gujarat. During a rally in Kanpur, the AAP’s Sanjay Singh had urged Kejriwal to fight against Modi from Varanasi. Party seniors Ashutosh and Manish Sisodia endorsed this.

In the Delhi Assembly elections, Kejriwal had defeated three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit from the New Delhi seat by a margin of 22,000 votes.